MISSION VIEJO : Saddleback Trustee Areas to Be Redrawn

Saddleback Community College District officials will soon redraw boundaries for the district’s seven trustee areas to account for southward population shifts.

Chancellor Richard Sneed said the boundaries should be redrawn by February, alleviating imbalances in which some trustees represent 24% or more of the district’s 583,400 residents, while others represent less than 7%.

A higher percentage of residents now live in the southern third of the district compared to 10 years ago, Sneed said.

“We had a plan that we presented recently that had a distribution of 11% up to 17% (of the residents) within the areas,” he said. “But we have taken that back because we think we can draw areas that will be even closer in population, close to even.”

When the current lines were drawn in the early 1980s, the trustee areas held roughly equal populations, Sneed said.

But now, the areas range in their percentage of the district’s population from the 31.1% who live in Area 6, which is primarily in Irvine and is represented by Robert L. Moore, to the 5.3% who live in Area 2, which includes Tustin and is represented by Joan J. Hueter.

“I guess they have to try to balance the areas,” Hueter said. “Obviously if you live in a larger area, there is more of a chance that somebody will try to run against you. In a smaller area, chances are you’ll run unopposed.”

While the trustees must live in the areas they represent, they are elected from a districtwide ballot. Sneed said there are no plans to change this system.

The advantage of the system is that all communities within the district are represented, while the district’s overall welfare takes precedence over local concerns, he said.

Without designated trustee areas, he said, one community might have two or three board members, while another has none.

Election by voters within a single area would start pitting “my area versus your area,” Sneed said.

The new boundaries are being drawn carefully so that current board members won’t have to run against each other in the next election, he said, adding, “there would be no sense in disturbing anyone’s incumbency.”